Archie Battersbee's family call for inquiry saying no parent must 'go through this again'

Archie Battersbee's family have called for an inquiry following his death, saying "no parent must go through this again". The 12-year-old's life support was switched off on Saturday morning at the Royal London Hospital months after he suffered a major brain injury.

Archie's parents, Hollie Dance and Paul Battersbee, had fought a long-running legal battle over the withdrawal of treatment and in recent days made bids to the High Court, Court of Appeal and European Court of Human Rights to have him transferred to a hospice to die.

A last-ditch plea to the European Court of Human Rights to intervene in the case was rejected late on Friday (August 5), following a High Court ruling.

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The child had been in a coma since he was found unconscious by his mum in April and was being kept alive by a combination of medical interventions, including ventilation and drug treatments. The handling of his death on Saturday (August 6) was slammed by a family friend as "barbaric", as she described Archie's loved ones having to watch him "suffocate" and turn blue.

In a statement, released through the Christian Legal Centre, the family said: "We want something good to come out of this tragedy and the horrendous experience we have been put through by the system. No parent or family must go through this again.

"We have been forced to fight a relentless legal battle by the Hospital Trust while faced with an unimaginable tragedy. We were backed into a corner by the system, stripped of all our rights, and have had to fight for Archie’s real ‘best interests’ and right to live with everything stacked against us.

"This has now happened too often to parents who do